Baseball Hosts No. 4 Tennessee for SEC Opening Weekend

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri baseball opens its 11th season of Southeastern Conference play this weekend, hosting No. 4 Tennessee in a three-game series at Taylor Stadium (March 17-19), beginning with a 3 p.m. contest Friday (March 17).

Winners of 11 of its last 12 games, Mizzou belted six home runs Tuesday to edge Lamar, 10-8, hiking its overall mark to 13-3 this season. Hank Zeisler accounted for three of those homers, becoming the first Tiger since Trey Harris in 2017 to go deep three times in one contest.

Fans can once again catch Mizzou baseball on the airwaves all season long on KTGR and the Tiger Radio Network. Tex Little and Matt Michaels return to the booth for the call. Additionally, each of the three games in the series will be streamed live on SEC Network+.

PITCHING PROBABLES

Friday-RHP Chandler Murphy (Mizzou) vs. RHP Chase Dollander (Tennessee)
Saturday-RHP Rorik Maltrud (Mizzou) vs. RHP Chase Burns (Tennessee)
Sunday-TBD (Mizzou) vs. RHP Drew Beam (Tennessee)

PROMOTIONS

St. Patrick’s Day Mizzou Jersey (Friday-first 250 students)
Raising Canes (Friday-first 500 students)
Beat Tennessee buttons (Friday)
Mizzou Spatula (Saturday-limited quantities)
Boone Electric Cooperative Family Funday (Sunday) – Kids run the bases, postgame autographs and trading cards.

SEC OPENING WEEKEND

Mizzou is 10-17 all-time on the opening weekend of SEC play.
In its nine previous SEC-opening series, the Tigers have claimed just two of those – both sweeps of Georgia (2015) and Alabama (2017).
This weekend marks the second time the Tigers have opened the SEC slate against Tennessee; the Volunteers took two of three games from Mizzou to open the 2014 league season in Columbia.

SERIES HISTORY

Missouri brings a slim 14-13 all-time edge over Tennessee into the weekend.
The Volunteers claimed all three meetings with the Tigers last season in Knoxville (April 8-10, 2022).
Tennessee has won six straight against the Tigers, sweeping each of the last two season series (2021-22).
Mizzou and UT have split their previous 12 meetings in Columbia.

HOME COOKIN’

Missouri concludes its 12-game home stand this weekend, bringing an 8-1 record at Taylor Stadium into the series.
The Tigers have hit .312 as a team during their current home stand, averaging 1.8 home runs and 8.4 runs per outing.
On the mound, Mizzou has allowed just 3.3 runs per game at Taylor Stadium so far this season; Chandler Murphy has been dominant at home, going 2-0 with just one run allowed while striking out 13 over 13.0 innings in two starts.

MEET THE TIGERS

Missouri is off to a 13-3 start to the season, including eight wins in its first nine games on its current home stand.
The Tigers are receiving votes in a major poll (NCBWA) for the third straight week.
Mizzou’s 2023 roster features a heavy helping of talent from within the state of Missouri’s borders, with 16 players from the Show-Me State.
Additionally, Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser has brought in players from a total of 16 different states, plus the territory of Puerto Rico.
Luke Mann is hitting at a .371 clip, which is tops among the Tigers’ everyday starters; the preseason All-SEC pick has homered five times and scored a club-best 18 runs through the first 16 games.
Hank Zeisler homered three times in Wednesday’s win over Lamar and leads the club with eight home runs and 23 RBIs.
Chandler Murphy turned in a string of 16.1 consecutive scoreless innings, Feb. 23-March 10.
Zach Franklin leads the club with three victories and 29 strikeouts in six appearances.
As a team, the Tigers are batting .305 and have out-homered the opposition by a 26-11 count through the first 16 games of the season.
The Mizzou pitching staff has logged double-digit strikeout totals in 10 of its 16 games.

MEET THE VOLUNTEERS

Under the direction of former Tiger Tony Vitello (Mizzou ’02, ’04), the Volunteers are off to a 15-3 start with wins in 15 of their last 16 contests.
Tennessee entered the week ranked No. 4 by the NCBWA, and as high as No. 2 (USA Today Coaches/DIBaseball).
The Vols entered the preseason ranked among the top five teams in the country in every major poll after going 57-9 and claiming SEC regular-season and tournament titles in 2022.
Tennessee is hitting .315 as a team with 41 home runs on the season.
Sophomore first baseman Blake Burke leads the Vols with a .400 batting average, while his eight homers rank 11th nationally.
Preseason All-America choice Jared Dickey shares the team lead in runs scored (23) after hitting .380 in 2022.
Sophomore second baseman Christian Moore leads UT in runs (23), OBP (.513), walks (20) and steals (11).
On the mound, the triumvirate of weekend starters Drew Beam, Chase Burns and Chase Dollander have combined to go 8-1 with 102 punchouts in just 67.0 innings this season.

MURPHY FEELING FINE AT HOME

Senior right-hander Chandler Murphy has settled into his new surroundings at Taylor Stadium quite nicely, going 2-0 with an 0.69 ERA in his first two home starts in Black and Gold.
The Arizona transfer tossed a combined two-hitter with Brock Lucas in an 8-0 win over Texas Southern (March 4) in his first home start.
He then worked the first complete game by a Tiger hurler last weekend in a 6-1 win over NJIT.
In his two home starts, Murphy has fanned 13, while walking just two and surrendering only seven hits.

TO BE FRANK

Mizzou graduate transfer Zach Franklin has made an immediate impact in his first season with Mizzou, going 3-0 with a team-best 29 strikeouts in just 12.1 IP.
Franklin is the SEC’s active leader in career wins (19) and strikeouts (243), ranking third among all active NCAA Division I pitchers in those two categories as well.
The Marion, N.C., native has also recorded 12 saves in his career, which is tied for third on the active SEC list
Franklin has also recorded the top velocity by a Tiger pitcher this season, topping out at 98.26 MPH vs. TCU on Feb. 19.
In his six 2023 outings to date, Franklin has registered at least six punchouts in three of those, none of which have extended beyond 3.0 innings.
Franklin has limited left-handed hitters to .118 (2-for-17) hitting, while averaging a whopping 21.16 K’s per nine innings so far in 2023.

THROWING SMOKE

Mizzou’s pitching staff is off to a blazing hot start, with 10 double-digit strikeout totals in its first 16 games.
With 174 K’s to date, the Tigers are on pace to shatter the program’s single-season record for strikeouts (559 in 2019).
The Tigers rank eighth nationally as a staff in strikeouts per nine innings (12.0).
Mizzou’s team WHIP of 1.11 ranks ninth among all Division I pitching staffs, while the Tigers’ two shutouts on the season rank 21st nationally.
As a staff, the Tigers have limited the opposition to a collective .200 batting average, with eight different pitchers logging averages against of .200 or less.
Individually, Zach Franklin’s three wins are tied for 20th among all Division I pitchers.

MANN-ING UP

Luke Mann continued his climb up the Mizzou home run chart, hitting his 32nd and 33rd career round-trippers against Texas Southern (March 4-5) to move into sole possession of the No. 9 spot on the list.
Mann needs two more long balls to catch Ryan Stegall and Dave Silvestri in the No. 7 position on the chart.
The St. Louis native also brings a career-best 12-game hit streak into Friday’s contest (Feb. 24-March 15).
The fifth-year third baseman has hit .400 (18-for-45) with four homers and 11 RBIs over the course of his current hit streak.
Mann was tabbed for first-team preseason laurels, becoming the first Tiger honoree since Kameron Misner’s second-team selection five years ago.
Mann’s 17 blasts were the most by a Tiger since Cody Ehlers hit 18 round-trippers in 2004.
Mann has reached base safely in all 16 games this season.

DIGGING THE LONG BALL

This weekend’s series will feature two of the top power-hitting lineups in the SEC, with Tennessee’s 41 homers ranking third in the conference.
Mizzou’s offense has picked up right where it left off last spring as well, outhomering the opposition by a 26-11 count through its first 16 games.
Ten different Tigers have gone deep to date, including Hank Zeisler, who ranks 12th nationally with eight home runs after going deep three times in Wednesday’s win.
Mizzou registered its first six-homer game as a team since April 2008 in Wednesday’s 10-8 win over Lamar.
Zeisler became the first Tiger to go deep three times in a game since Trey Harris in 2017.
Tennessee has been pounding the ball as well, entering the weekend with multiple homers in nine of its last 11 games.

BIESER BELIEVER

Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser is in his seventh year guiding the Tigers, entering the week with a 171-134-1 record as MU’s bench boss.
Bieser topped the 300-victory mark with Mizzou’s 10-4 win at FIU on Feb. 25, and enters Friday’s game with a career 309-231-1 mark in 11 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
The Tigers have finished with an overall record above .500 in five of Bieser’s six seasons.
Bieser’s 104 wins from 2017-19 were the most ever by a Mizzou baseball coach in his first three campaigns.
Additionally, Bieser’s win total marked the winningest three-year stretch by the Tigers since 2008-10 (103 victories).
Mizzou produced 39 wins in Southeastern Conference play from 2017-19 as well, marking its top three-year stretch in league play since joining its new conference in 2013.

TIGERS ON THE TUBE

Missouri is slated to appear in at least nine linear broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks over the course of the 2022 season.
The Tigers will play in eight matchups televised on the SEC Network, along with an ESPNU broadcast at Texas A&M on April 13.
Additionally, four regular-season dates have been designated as potential wild cards, allowing the league to select additional games for broadcast.
Mizzou’s SEC matchups and select non-conference games will stream on SEC Network+, including each of this weekend’s contest.

FOLLOW THE TIGERS

For all the latest information on Mizzou Baseball, please visit MUTigers.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Tigers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

This article is provided by University of Missouri Athletics